Charter change will open up everything – Drilon

Drilon has filed a resolution calling for a Con-Con to review the 1987 Constitution, saying the time is appropriate to do it. (Photo: Cesar Tomambo/PRIB)

MANILA – Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Monday the Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) being eyed to review the 1987 Constitution can tackle not only the shift of form of government to federalism but other scope of the amendments.

“When you open the Constitution to amendments, you open up everything. You cannot say that the term limit will not be discussed. You cannot do that,” Drilon said in a press conference.

“Because as I keep on repeating, the Constitutional Convention has plenary powers. Meaning, it can tackle and decide on anything and everything,” he added.

Drilon has filed a resolution calling for a Con-Con to review the 1987 Constitution, saying the time is appropriate to do it.

“The 1987 Constitution was crafted immediately after Martial Law. In my view, many of those provisions were in reaction to Martial Law. After 30 years, it is time that we review whether those provisions are still valid,” Drilon said.

Drilon said that Resolution of Both Houses No. 1 calls for a convention, whose members shall be elected by January of next year, to propose amendments to, or revision of, the 29-year-old Constitution.

Drilon said that in order to maintain the non-partisan nature of the process, Section 3 of RBH 1 provides that “No person who is a member of the Congress of the Republic of the Philippines at the time of the adoption of this Resolution shall be qualified as a candidate for election as Delegate to the Convention.”

He further explained that the same section also prohibits candidates in the May 2016 elections to qualify as a candidate for election as Delegate to the Convention.

Drilon, a lawyer and former Justice secretary, explained that pursuant to Article XVII, Section 3 of the Constitution, “Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its members, call a constitutional convention to propose amendments to, or a revision of, the Constitution.”

“The common good would be best served if the review of, and proposals to amend or revise, the Constitution would be made through and by a constitutional convention whose delegates are to be elected by the people for such purpose,” said Drilon, who topped the 2016 senatorial elections.

“It is therefore more prudent to have the Constitution reviewed for possible amendments or revision by a constitutional convention whose delegates shall be elected on the last Monday of January 2017,” he added.

Drilon said each House of Congress has to vote separately on the resolution.

According to the resolution, the Delegates to the Convention will be elected on the last Monday of January 2017 in accordance with the provisions of existing elections laws, rules and regulations.

They shall be elected by administrative region based on the number of legislative districts in such region, the resolution said.

The candidates for delegate to the Convention shall have the same qualifications as those required of the members of the House of Representatives.

The resolution also bans candidates to represent or allow them to be represented as being a candidate of any political party or any organization, Drilon noted.

Drilon said they have proposed that the finished Constitution as crafted by the convention should be submitted to the people for ratification in the second Monday of May 2020.

“That is in effect the limitation on the life of the convention. From September 2017 to May 2020, it should be submitted for ratification in May 2020, which means that they have to finish that work before or whatever,” Drilon said.

“I placed that so that there will be a limitation on the length of the convention. Because if you have that open-ended, it may take them five years, because the powers of the convention is plenary. Nobody can tell you how long it should be… But we can provide as to when it should be submitted for ratification, and we control the budget,” he added.